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In 1939, at the age of 18, Anna Lee Aldred
became the first woman in the United States to
receive a professional jockey’s license.
Accepted into the previously all-male profession
when officials couldn’t find any rules
prohibiting women from racing, she also had to
prove her ability to handle a horse on the
racetrack. From 1939 to 1945 – until she grew
too big at five feet, five inches and 118 pounds --
she was a tough competitor who raced against both
male jockeys and the women who followed her example
and became professional jockeys. The daughter of a
horse trainer and racer and sister of two famed
rodeo riders, she won her first pony race at the
age of six on the amateur circuit in Montrose.
After leaving professional racing, she became a
daring trick rider in prestigious rodeos throughout
the west. Until the age of 80 when she broke a hip,
she continued to ride, often working as a
“ponyboy” assisting jockeys at the
Montrose fairgrounds and riding at the opening of
the annual fair. Aldred was inducted into the
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 1975
because she exemplifies the pioneering spirit of
the Western way of life.
Anna Lee Aldred, 85, died June 12 in Montrose,
Colo (Mexico?).
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